From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines, Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.

Gear

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Throughout my time cycling through the United States and visiting areas nationally protected, there has only been one that I visited without Eddy. That being Mt. Rainier in Washington. I now add to the already bloated list Everglades National Park. I visited the park with my Parents. We originally were going to bike there and stealth camp along the way, but like the best laid plans of mice and men, this didn't happen. Either way, I was there and took pictures. The Everglades are being killed by civilization as the water is only now trickling down to southern Florida when it once flowed like flowing water. Irrigation, canals, reservoirs are all stealing the blood of the glades. The animals and environment pay dearly, and the efforts to restore or protect all take as the foundation that canals and irrigation and reservoirs must always continue. but I digress...

Monday, March 5, 2012

The thing with phases are the same
thing with each day on a bike tour. Where you start is so different
from where you end. So with the ending of Phase 3, lets take a look
back to where we came from, where are, and where we're going. And
by we I mean me.

Way back in Texas, the humble
beginnings of Phase 3 began. With snow flurries, ice, and overcast
skies, I did find myself in Alpine, Texas. Chris' girlfriend
Brittany came to join the bike tour with Chris and Phase 3 did begin.
I ventured forth solo to Big Bend, my last national park so far, and
headed across the get expanse of Texas. Rain, fogs, winds, and slogs
great and small were in the cards for Texas, along with hills, music,
new years, Gulf of Mexicos, and one of the worst places in
America, Port Arthur. WOOF!

And then, finally, after more than a
month, I entered Louisiana. Through marshes and swamps, more rain
and winds, I finally made it to New Orleans to meet up with
friends. A week of debauchery, or at least one night, and I was on
my way around lake Pontchartrain and back towards Baton Rouge for a
last minute friend visit before heading north into Mississippi and
the Natchez Trace Parkway. A week on the parkway and I had forgotten
all about the fact that the rest of the south wasn't a low traffic
highway where cars go way around you and there are free campgrounds
all over. Mississippi and into Alabama, as loyal Binglers will
recall, was not for the faint of the bicycle tourer's heart.

Crossing Alabama, in the back waters,
the pine forest, and hills and dogs and I made it to Georgia along
the Chattahoochee river. I followed the river more or less, passing
through the diminishing hills, through state parks and down toward
the pan handle of Florida. Sunless skies greeted me in the Sunshine
state.

From the capital to the coast, I rode
through the prairies, the forests, the flats, the Okeechobee lake. A
few days ago I biked to the Atlantic, not only declaring Phase 3
complete, but also my second cross country bike ride. Me and Chris
left the Pacific Ocean in Morro Bay, California on October 6, 2011
and I saw the Atlantic Ocean on March 1, 2012, 6,482 miles.

Phase 3 was 3,643 miles from Alpine, TX
to Boca Raton, FL. My total mileage thus is 14,947.6 miles. It has
been 10 months since leaving Burlington, VT. But what every Bingler
is asking, if Phase 3 has ended, doesn't that mean.... YES, PHASE
4!!!!

Phase 4, or the final phase as it's
called on the street, will of course begin in Boca Raton, Florida and
will conclude not so far away in Asheville, North Carolina. It's a
shade under 1,000 miles and will mark the official conclusion of this
bicycle tour. I have already been in contact with the Mayor of
Asheville and finally, a tinker tape parade will be awaiting my
heroic entry into the fair city nestled in the mountains. Long and
long have I awaited the glory, gold and free buffet that should be
awarded me. Long and long I say.

Stats galore will be revealed then, and
not a moment sooner. Also, pictures of the elephants and albino
black crows that will be on display for my parade will be posted.
It's been a long strange trip and I have loved almost every moment.
I'll be sad when I hang up my touring wheels, but they won't get too
dusty I'm sure. I look forward to learning the landscape of the
Appalachians by bicycle and by foot.

Well, until Phase 4 starts and I
actually have stuff to say about biking, keep pedaling

I am
reminded today that this day is another day upon the wondrous circle
of life and death, and that we all continue perpetually on. Pausing
at times to reflect, we sometimes tack stock of where we are and
judge. But perhaps, on those days, those moments when we look,
perhaps there is another way of seeing ourselves, our small life.

Has
any one supposed it lucky to be born?

I
hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and
I know
it.

I
pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd
babe, and
am not contain'd between my hat and boots,

And
peruse manifold objects, no two alike and every one good,

The
earth good and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good.

I
am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,

I
am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal
and fathomless
as myself,

(They
do not know how immortal, but I know.)

Every
kind for itself and its own, for me mine male and female,

For
me those that have been boys and that love women,

For
me the man that is proud and feels how it stings to
be slighted,

For
me the sweet-heart and the old maid, for me mothers and
the mothers
of mothers,

Perhaps on this day we let go of our
self judgments, our negative thoughts, the constraintswe
place on ourselves and those imposed upon us. We are not
these selves we hold on toso dearly after all. So on
this day I will take the time to just be. Aware that I am
here, in life,amongst all the wondrous creatures and
beauty that we have the miracle to behold.